What are Engineering Standards?

Standards and Codes

Standards, codes, specifications are extremely important - often essential - technical documents in engineering and related technical fields.

Standards.. a technical standard is an established norm or requirement. It is usually a formal document that establishes uniform engineering or technical criteria, methods, processes and practices. The documents prepared by a professional group or committee which are believed to be good and proper engineering practices and which contain mandatory requirement.

Codes.. a code is a set of rules and specifications or systematic procedures for design, fabrication, installation and inspection methods prepared in such a manner that it can be adopted by legal jurisdiction. Codes can be approved by local, state or federal governments and can carry the force of law. The main purpose of codes is to protect the public by setting up the minimum acceptable level of safety for buildings, products and processes.

Pipe Fabrication Institute

The Pipe Fabrication Institute (PFI) publishes advisory Engineering Standards (ES) and Technical Bulletins (TB) intended to serve the needs of the pipe-fabricating industry at the design level and in actual shop operations.

The PFI standards contain minimum requirements; however, the designer or fabricator may consider specifying additional requirements beyond the scope of PFI publications. The use of PFI standards or bulletins is voluntary. A listing of PFI publications follows..

The primary purpose of the Pipe Fabrication Institute is to promote the highest standards of excellence in the pipe fabrication industry.

Engineering Standards

Engineering and Fabrication

• ES2
  Method of Dimensioning Piping Assemblies
• ES7
  Minimum Length and Spacing for Welded Nozzles
• ES16
  Access Holes, Bosses, and Plugs for Radiographic Inspection of Pipe Welds
• ES26
  Welded Load Bearing Attachments to Pressure Retaining Piping Materials
• ES36
  Branch Reinforcement Work Sheets
• ES40
  Method of Dimensioning Grooved Piping Assemblies
• ES44
  Drafting Practices Standard

Welding and Fabrication

• ES1
  Internal Machining and Solid Machined Backing Rings For Circumferential Butt Welds
• ES21
  Internal Machining and Fit-up of GTAW Root Pass Circumferential Butt Welds
• ES24
  Pipe Bending Methods, Tolerances, Process and Material Requirements
• ES35
  Nonsymmetrical Bevels and Joint Configurations for Butt Welds
• ES45
  Recommended Practice for Local Post-Weld Heat Treatment
• ES47
  Welding of Internally Clad Piping
• ES49
  Guidelines for Installation of Integrally Reinforced Branch Connection Outlet Fitting

Cleaning, Painting, and Shipping

• ES5
  Cleaning of Fabricated Piping
• ES29
  Internal Abrasive Blast Cleaning of Ferritic Piping Materials
• ES31
  Standard for Protection of Ends of Fabricated Piping Assemblies
• ES34
  Temporary Painting/Coating of Fabricated Piping
• ES37
  Standard for Loading and Shipping of Piping Assemblies

Quality Control

• ES3
  Fabricating Tolerances
• ES11
  Permanent Marking on Piping Materials
• ES22
  Recommended Practice for Color Coding of Piping Materials
• ES32
  Tool Calibration
• ES39
  Fabricating Tolerances for Grooved Piping Systems
• ES41
  Standard for Material Control and Traceability of Piping Components
• ES43
  Standard for Protection of Austenitic Stainless Steel and Nickel Alloy Materials

Examination and Testing

• ES4
  Hydrostatic Testing of Fabricated Piping
• ES20
  Wall Thickness Measurement by Ultrasonic Examination
• ES27
  "Visual Examination" The Purpose, Meaning and Limitation of the Term
• ES42
  Standard for Positive Material Identification of Piping Components using Portable X-Ray Emission Type Equipment
• ES48
  Random Examination

Examples of Engineering Standards

1. Table of contents
2. Scope, codes, standards and references
3. General and specific requirements
4. Abbreviations for piping specifications
5. Valve tag numbering
6. Standard installation detail - Utility Station
7. Special fabricated larger diameter reducers
8. Four weld 90° LR Miter elbow
9. Two weld 45° LR Miter elbow
10. Perforated temporary conical strainers
11. T-Type strainers
12. Drip ring
13. Product sampler cooler
14. Tolerances for pipe fabrication
15. Line Blinds NPS 1/2 - NPS 60